How Your Small Business Can Make a Difference

Kayla DiPilato

Your small business is doing good things: sales are up, clients are happy, and your employees are productive and satisfied. Now it’s time to ask yourself, “How can we do good things for the world?” As a small business you and your employees are uniquely positioned to promote causes your company stands for. If altruism isn’t enough of a motivator, know that 81% of millennial consumers want companies to be good corporate citizens, meaning your social responsibility efforts can also bring in customers. Ready to dive in? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Choose the right causes

There are a lot of problems in the world and it can feel overwhelming to decide how your company will allocate its limited resources. While it is great to want to help, spreading yourself too thin by trying to help a variety of causes will limit your impact. To narrow it down, focus on causes that are relevant to your business, impact the local community, and are of interest to your employees. You may even consider sending a survey to employees asking them what causes and organizations they are interested in helping which can make it easier to narrow it down.

Donate goods or services

We know that for small businesses and startups money can be tight, but this doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference! Focus on donations of products or your team’s talent which can help you make an impact without breaking the bank. For example, here at Kuvio we are running a contest to give away a free website redesign to a nonprofit or small business in need. Not sure how this could work for your company? Get inspired by local nonprofit organizations’ websites and social media pages where they often post calls for help.

Empower employees

Giving employees the opportunity to give back is beneficial in many ways. In addition to helping great causes, this can boost employee motivation and morale. In addition, if your team volunteers as a group it can be a great way to build relationships and encourage more collaboration back at the office.

Create a partnership

Find a nonprofit partner that has a means tested approach to a problem you care about. There are many sites, such as CharityNavigator.com which can help you find organizations that are transparent and impactful so that your contributions are used in the best way possible.

Incentivize your customers to donate

Your impact can go beyond your own company’s contributions if you help encourage your customers to get involved. Maybe you solicit donations as customers are paying or offer a discount to those who make a contribution. An even simpler solution is to create a place for a donation collection box in your space. This can change seasonally, for example, host a back to school drive in the fall and a coat drive in the winter.

Go local

Even if you do not have the resources to donate to local nonprofits, you can still support them in other ways. You can create a space for local organizations to hang flyers or leave information and share upcoming volunteer opportunities or events with employees. You can also help local organizations get attention by giving them shout outs on your social media pages.

Get creative

You know your business better than anyone and your team may have a unique set of skills that isn’t typically solicited by nonprofits. Don’t let that stop your from reaching out and offering your services if you think you can make a positive impact. We need creative solutions to solve the world’s most difficult problems!

Hopefully, these tips can help your company make a positive impact on your community and the world. Check back next week to learn how to leverage the good work you are doing on social media. Have an awesome social responsibility program in place? We want to hear about it! Tweet us @KuvioCreative.

Looking to freshen up your website or reimagine your branding? We can help! Contact us today: www.kuv.io/contact